I cook, I eat, I blog.

Asian-style Braised Pork Belly

The roomie bought a very nice, 1.5 lb slab of pork belly from the farmer’s market.

Now, I had never cooked pork belly so I took to the inter-webs and did some searching to get ideas and after much debate within myself I went the Asian route here inspired by Emeril. I started by making a marinade with soy sauce, lemon and lime juice, dark brown sugar, garlic, ginger, cayenne, onion powder and crushed red peppers. I scored the fat on top of the pork belly. Then I poured the marinade into a bag with the pork belly, closed it up and put in a pan in the fridge for about 30 hours.

Pork belly, marinade and a cup of water into a 9×13 pan. I cooked it fat side down at 325 degrees for an hour then flipped it over and continued cooking for another 90 minutes.

Serious shrinkage but looking good so far.

Pulled pork belly out of the cooking liquid and placed on a plate and into the fridge to cool. Then I removed the fat from the liquid and put that into a small saucepan to reduce down to a nice glaze. After about 4 hours I pulled the pork belly out and cut into cubes which were then put on some foil on a sheet tray.

Into a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes to crisp them up and caramelize some more.

These babies are ready to eat! I made up some good old white rice and a salad of baby bok choy, shredded carrot and jalapeno and some thinly sliced red onion dressed with a simple vinaigrette of EVOO, vinegar, soy sauce and salt and pepper. Serve the pork belly over the rice with a little bit of the glaze.

Mmmm…sweet, sour, salty, spicy, umami goodness that was crispy and melt-in-your-mouth tender, fatty goodness. I should have just called this meat candy because that is what it was to me. Delicious!